What Does Research Say About Distributed Meetings?
This is an edited excerpt of a discussion on how distributed teams handle brainstorming and other idea-generating tasks:
Question: My team is working on developing guidelines for distributed meetings. I'm looking for your response to a specific question, the answer to which has eluded the members of my team: When engaging in creativity-based group work (brainstorming, ideation, etc.), and one or more of the participants are remote (unable to meet face-to-face with the others, but able to connect via technology), is it best to conduct the session entirely "virtually," where all participants "call-in," in order to level the playing field?
Comment: I think from a group process perspective the option to have all team members participate virtually to "level the playing field" might have some merit. However, the advantages on most original-thought tasks for radically co-located teams (face-to-face) would suggest that if only one or two team members must participate remotely, it might still be good to have the rest of the team meet face-to-face--given the advantages for creative interaction. Team leader(s) would simply need to be sure to include the remote team members' ideas so that they felt like contributing members of the group.
Comment: June Langhoff's first research paper (See "An Overview of Remote Virtual Teams & Productivity: A Research Synopsis" in the Library has excellent remarks and references for guidelines and best practices for remote meetings. Also, check out Jim Creighton's "Best Practices of Far Flung Teams," also in the Library, which is more focused on best practices.
Comment: My summary of the research is that the management of the process probably has a bigger impact in many cases than does where the people are [located]. … The “group support system” research has shown that computer-supported brainstorming in distributed groups can work quite well if your goal is a lot of ideas. [The researcher posted a summary of a study on electronic brainstorming research] Despite the compelling research on its performance benefits, electronic brainstorming has not yet displaced--or even joined--verbal brainstorming as a widely used idea generation technique. [The researcher also provided comments on a lab experiment to test the “go to your room” policy – if everyone couldn’t be in the room, then no one would be in the room.]
Comment: Our overview of the research literature pretty much supports your excellent summary--distributed teams can collaborate effectively but innovation may be an entirely different animal. … Creativity is very dependent on serendipity and that's difficult to achieve in planned, well-managed meetings--the hallmarks of good remote collaboration. How do you build in surprise into a remote meeting? How do you make people comfortable with each other enough so that they can be foolish and adventuresome without fear? It's pretty difficult unless you're face-to-face and you trust each other. Distribution does have the advantage of introducing more culturally diverse and synergistic perspectives.
For the complete conversation, see http://www.newwow.net/members/node/295
